Though I was tolerably easy in my external circumstances, yet my mind hankering after England made my life still: unhappy; and that infelicity daily increased as I saw the less probability of attaining my desire. At length, hearing of some European sailors who were under confinement for contraband trade at a Portuguese fort about two miles from Quamis, I resolved to go to see them; and if any of them should be English, at least to inquire after my native country. I went and found two Dutchmen who had been sailors in British pay several years, three Scotchmen, an Irishman, and five Englishmen, but all had been long in English merchants' service. They were taken, as they told me, by a Portuguese vessel, together with their ship, as a Dutch prize under pretence of contraband trade. The captain was known to be a Dutchman, though he spoke good English, and was then in English pay and his vessel English; therefore they would have it that he was a Dutch trader, and so seized his ship in the harbour, with the prisoners in it The captain, who was on shore with several of his men, was threatened to be laid in irons if he was taken, which obliged him and his men to abscond, and fly overland to an English factory for assistance to recover his ship and cargo; being afraid to appear and claim it amongst so many enemies without an additional force. They had been in confinement two months, and their ship confiscated and sold. In this miserable condition I left them, but returned once or twice a week for a fortnight or three weeks to visit them. These instances of regard, as they thought them, created some confidence in me, so that they conversed with me very freely. Amongst other discourse, they told me one day that one of their crew who went with the captain had been taken ill on the way, and being unable to proceed, was returned; but as he talked good Portuguese, he was not suspected to belong to them; and that he had been to visit them, and would be there again that day. I had a mind to see him, so stayed longer than I intended, and in about an hour's time he came. After he was seated he asked who I was, and (privately) if I might be trusted. Being satisfied I might, for that I was a Cornish man, he began as follows, looking narrowly about to see he was not overheard: "My lads," says he, "be of good courage; I have hopes for you; be but men and we shall see better days yet." I wondered to what this preface tended, when he told us that since his return from the captain, as he spoke good Portuguese and had sailed on board Portuguese traders several years, he mixed among that people, and particularly among the crew of the "Del Cruz," the ship which had taken them; that that ship had partly unloaded, and was taking in other goods for a future voyage; that he had informed himself of their strength, and that very seldom more than three men and two boys lay on board; that he had hired himself to the captain, and was to go on board the very next day.